Anybody got one of these yet? Raven mower.

Gale Hawkins · Apr 22, 2015

Awesome.

I love that open platform for getting on and off.

shallowwatersailor · May 10, 2015

I'm happy to see that they are still around. When they first came out, there was interest but never saw one.

AchingBack · May 10, 2015

Quoth the Raven MPV, nevermore shall I darken AchingBack's door. What a relief it was to see the Raven loaded on the truck and headed back to Lowe's for a refund. I'd been interested in the Raven ever since it first came on the market and was subsequently recalled for various problems. When the 7100s came on the market with all of the touted improvements, I was excited about the Raven's usefulness on my property. I'd never owned a riding mower and felt this machine would give me some relief from the use of my walk behind mowers. Sadly, I was disappointed. My property is just too rough for it. In addition, when the two electric motors are engaged for blade operation, the noise level becomes intolerable, even with hearing protection.

Unless you have a nice fairly flat, large urban lawn and can take advantage of cruise control, you will find the operation is very jerky. My property is too much of an obstacle course to be able to set the machine at a constant speed. It did a good job cutting some very high grass I had let grow so I could really put the Raven to the test. I did not like using it up by the house because the grass gets thrown so far away from the machine and is hard to keep out of the flower beds.

So, after giving it a fair shot for about an hour, I had to get off and away from the noise. I plugged in the 12 volt battery charger and left it on for about 24 hours. When I tried to start the Raven - nothing, zip, zero, nada. Read the manual several times over and found nothing of help in the trouble shooting section. You are supposed to be able to move the machine in electric mode, but that feature did not work either until the next day after I'd left the 12 volt charger on for another day. Mysteriously, the machine decided to move in electric mode, but still would not start.

Now I know, my curiosity has been satisfied and I am going to keep my money in the bank and use it for home improvement projects. Lowes has been great with their service. The outdoor equipment manager never gave me one bit of a hassle regarding the return, not charging me for delivery, or pickup.

Overall, this will be a fine machine if you have the ideal property: smooth, wide expansive lawns would be the best application. Believe me, you will definitely need hearing protection, or before long you won't have any hearing left.

If I'd had the opportunity to see the machine in person before purchase, hear it run, hear it roar in mowing mode; it would have saved all involved a lot of time and aggravation.

SPYDERLK · May 10, 2015

AchingBack said:
Quoth the Raven MPV, nevermore shall I darken AchingBack's door. What a relief it was to see the Raven loaded on the truck and headed back to Lowe's for a refund. [snip]

Overall, this will be a fine machine if you have the ideal property: smooth, wide expansive lawns would be the best application. Believe me, you will definitely need hearing protection, or before long you won't have any hearing left.

If I'd had the opportunity to see the machine in person before purchase, hear it run, hear it roar is mowing mode; it would have saved all involved a lot of time and aggravation.

Thanks for posting your review. ... I was interested too. Sounds like its not for me.
larry

San Jacinto · Jun 14, 2015

Wow, no love for the Raven.

I guess it depends on your application and property type. The Raven is going to be a machine you either love or hate, no in-between. I have 25 acres in East Texas, was needing something that I could keep up with the grass around the house and barn area, which is about 3-4 acres. Spent a year looking at Z-turns and just couldn't stomach 4K+ to mow a few acres of grass. Wife was wanting an ATV to get around the property with, haul her garden wagon, travel the 1/2 mile down to the mailbox, etc..

So, I needed something to mow with, she needed wheels to get around on. The Raven killed two birds with one stone and now I got an extra generator that may come in handy if I ever need power in a remote part of the property.

Some of the observations I've seen in this thread I would like to comment on.

1. Yes, no rear suspension. Solid axle. If you have very rough ground, the ride will kill you. With moderately uneven land, the seat has decent springs and should be fine.

2. Charging. I've had mine about two months and have never plugged it in. Under normal use, there should never be a need to plug it in. When in "Mow Mode" or running the gasoline motor, it is charging the batteries for the electric drive system. Takes me about 2 hours to mow what I need to with the Raven. The wife uses it daily for the next week after that and she has not had to crank up the engine due to a weakened battery. The battery life was one of my reservations about the Raven, so far it has been a non-issue. Time will tell though.

3. Mowing. This is one area I'm very impressed with. It has changed my opinion of what you can do with an electric drive mower. I see serious future potential for electric direct-drive mowing decks. The mowing deck is simple to install and remove. I use a small 1/2" sheet of plywood which raises the deck up perfectly to line up with the attachment points when installing the deck. I'm cutting an interspersed mix of Coastal Bermuda & Bahia. The mowing deck performs like a champ. My home was built in a pasture, so I can't attest to cut quality. It looks great when I'm done, so..

Again, time will tell with the deck drive motors.

4. Noise. Yes. You need ear protection when mowing. The gasoline engine in the Raven is loud. I wear the same 30db muffs I use for shooting which I also use when I'm shredding the other 20+ acres of pasture on my Kubota. I always wear ear protection when mowing or using any gas power equipment, saw, blower, whatever. Just a habit I got into a long time ago.

Anyone with a wife or significant other who needs something to get around a relatively civilized piece of acreage with, do light duty hauling - the Raven is the vehicle. My wife was the one who after seeing it and understanding what it was told me "Buy it, NOW", heh.

If Denver Global wanted to make an immediate engineering improvement to the Raven line - engineering a unit with rear suspension would #1 on my list.

gary49 · Jun 14, 2015

Adding 240V capability would make it more attractive. A lot of clever ideas with this machine, maybe not quite ready for prime time.

rtremble · Jul 2, 2015

I have (or should say had its going back to dealer today) the MPV7100S. It mows great however... The fuses blow out all the time. They are an odd fuse and hard to find. Yup it wont work without them. After 3 hours of use the electric deck failed. Had to get complete new deck. second trip to dealer (who is 2 hour round trip from my house). At 20 hours needed air filters... Raven sent the wrong filters. Sigh... another trip to dealer. Now at 26 hours the machine will only run 1.5 minutes and then stalls (in all modes of operation even electric). Here's the worst part... I have been calling Raven for support for four days... nothing. No call backs -- no help. I called the dealer who sld it to me and he said bring it back and he'll trade me for any mower he has... I'm doing just that.

Its a great idea but i think its too much for one machine to do all this. It just has been a pain in the butt since I got it. There's allot of nice things. Its comfortable, fast, nice turn radius, and it has a generator... but the dang thing doesn't mow - it keeps failing. Save your money!

AchingBack · Jul 2, 2015

RIP, Raven. So glad Lowes took mine back and my money is still in my pocket. Experience such as had by rtremble can really mess up your time being productive. Shame on Denver Global for the poor customer support.